The field of the disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for electronic bill payment, and more particularly to systems and methods for validating an account to be used in an electronic payment.
Known electronic bill presentment and payment systems enable payors to receive and pay bills electronically through the use of a third-party bill payment originator. Initially, a payor must identify a potential biller/payee to a system run by a third-party originator. Typically, in known systems, the payor identifies a potential payee/biller by name and by a payee zip code. For example, the payor may have a paper bill that the payor desires to pay electronically. Using the payee name and remittance address on the paper bill, the payor identifies the biller/payee to the system. Known systems compare the payee name and zip code to biller/payees that are known to the system (i.e., known “billers”). More particularly, known systems may maintain a database of biller/payees that includes information on how a customer account number associated with each biller/payee should be formatted. In addition, some known bill payment systems use a payment network, such as the MasterCard® Network, to transfer payments from payors to payees (MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International, of Purchase, N.Y.).
After the payee is matched to a known biller, the payor may receive bills and submit payments electronically through the system. If the payee cannot be matched to a known biller, payment generally cannot be sent electronically and must be sent via paper check. Payments sent non-electronically cause unwanted burdens and delays to users, payment systems, and payees.
In some situations, a payor may supply imperfect biller/payee information to the bill payment originator running the bill payment system. Some known systems may receive imperfect customer account number information, and may cause payments to fail to pass biller payment processing edits. If the customer account number does not pass biller payment processing edits, a reject transaction is generated and provided back to the bill payment originator. For example, if the payor submits a payment to a bill payment originator for a payee/biller with a customer account number of “1234567890” and the associated biller/payee can only process account identifiers which are exactly eleven characters long, the customer account number may be rejected because it does not pass biller payment processing edits. In some systems, bill payment originators perform account validation tasks manually to avoid such rejections.
Accordingly, a system and method for facilitating electronic payments by reducing non-electronic payments is desired. More particularly, a system and method for validating an account to be used in an electronic payment is desired.